Privacy Policy

What We Collect

Email address

We collect your email address when you sign up for Chicago Helper alerts. We use it to send you notifications about Chicago Park District registration dates, reminders, and recaps.

Phone number (paid subscribers only)

If you subscribe to SMS alerts, we collect your phone number to send you text message notifications. You provide this after completing your payment. We don't collect phone numbers from free subscribers.

Payment information

If you purchase a paid subscription, your payment is processed securely by our payment processor. We never see or store your card number.

Analytics

We use a third-party analytics service to understand aggregate traffic patterns: which pages are visited, where traffic comes from, and how people navigate the site. This service uses cookies to collect data. We do not use advertising or retargeting cookies. You can opt out at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

IP address

Our website infrastructure provider logs your IP address when you visit chicagohelper.com. We don't use this for any purpose other than security and rate limiting. Logs are retained for 30 days maximum.

What We Don't Collect

• Your name
• Your location (beyond what you tell us voluntarily)
• Advertising or retargeting cookies
• Individual-level behavioral tracking
• Any data from your device

How We Use Your Data

• To send you email notifications about Chicago Park District registration dates and related updates
• To send you SMS notifications if you're a paid subscriber and have opted in to SMS
• To send you transactional emails (subscription confirmation, renewal reminders)
• To understand aggregate site traffic

We don't use your data for advertising. We don't sell it. We don't share it with third parties except as described below.

Who We Share Data With

We use a small number of trusted third-party services to operate Chicago Helper:

• An email delivery provider stores your email address to send you notifications and transactional emails.
• An SMS provider stores your phone number if you are an SMS subscriber and have opted in.
• A payment processor handles subscription payments. We never see your card number.
• An analytics provider receives aggregate traffic data such as page visits and traffic sources. No personal information is included.
• Our hosting provider logs IP addresses as part of standard server operation.

We don't share your data with anyone else. If you'd like to know which specific services we use, email us.

How to Unsubscribe

Email: Every broadcast email includes an unsubscribe link. Click it and you'll be removed immediately.

SMS: Reply STOP to any Chicago Helper text message. You'll be immediately removed from our SMS list. You can re-subscribe by texting START.

Delete your data: Email us at hello@chicagohelper.com and ask us to delete your data. We'll remove your email and phone number from our systems within 7 days and confirm when it's done.

Data Retention

We keep your email address and phone number for as long as you're subscribed. If you unsubscribe, our providers keep your address in their suppression lists to prevent re-sending to an opted-out address. This is a standard deliverability requirement and is not something we control.

If you request full deletion, we'll remove your data from our providers' contact lists within 7 days.

Security

We use reputable, security-certified providers to store your email address, phone number, and payment information. We never store payment card numbers. Access credentials are stored securely and never exposed in our codebase.

Changes to This Policy

If we make significant changes, we'll notify subscribers via email before the changes take effect.

Contact

Questions about this policy: hello@chicagohelper.com

Chicago Helper
hello@chicagohelper.com
Chicago, IL